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LEADING ARCHITECTS

MANUELLE GAUTRAND ARCHITECTURE

CONTENTS

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MANUELLE GAUTRAND: THE LUXURY OF BEING UNACCUSTOMED BY ALICE LAGUARDA OUT OF THE SHADOWS BY PAUL FINCH CONSTRUCTIVE ARCHITECTURE AS NARRATIVE SCULPTURE BY NORMAN KIETZMANN A MATTER OF PERCEPTION BY MICHAEL KOLLER

CULTURAL PLACES

20 MUNCH MUSEUM

26 REFURBISHMENT AND EXTENSION OF LILLE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART

36 ‘LA GAITÉ LYRIQUE’ CULTURAL CENTER FOR DIGITAL ART

44 MUSIC AND DANCE CENTER

50 MUSEUM OF THE HUMAN BODY

56 ‘LA COMÉDIE DE BÉTHUNE’ NATIONAL DRAMA CENTER

68 CULTURAL, SPORTS, AND COMMUNITY CENTER

80 ALESIA CINEMA THEATER

94 PARRAMATTA SQUARE—NEW COUNCIL FACILITIES ACCOMMODATION PLACES

104 ‘SOLARIS’ HOUSING BLOCK

110 ‘V33/F37’—HOTEL AND MIXED FACILITIES

118 HIGH-RISE MIXED-USE BUILDING

126 ‘HIPARK’ APARTMENT HOTEL

136 ‘LE BELAROIA’ HOTELS AND HOUSING BUILDING SHOPPING PLACES

146 CITROËN FLAGSHIP SHOWROOM ON THE CHAMPS-ÉLYSÉES

158 MAISON LOUIS VUITTON

164 GALERIES LAFAYETTE DEPARTMENT STORE FAÇADE REDESIGN

174 GALERIES LAFAYETTE SHOPPING MALL REFURBISHMENT AND EXTENSION WORK PLACES

184

196

206

216

224

230

LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICE BUILDING LE MONOLITHE MIXED-USE BUILDING ‘ORIGAMI’ OFFICE BUILDING ‘AVA’ OFFICE TOWER LE MONDE HEADQUARTERS ‘BRÄDSTAPELN’ BUILDING

243 COMPANY PROFILE 248 TYPOLOGIE 255 LIST OF PROJECTS

MANUELLE GAUTRAND ARCHITECTURE

MANUELLE GAUTRAND: THE LUXURY OF BEING UNACCUSTOMED

by Alice Laguarda

Disobedience

Unmasking

In her approach to architecture, Manuelle Gautrand explores the crisis of modernity, in which ‘our rich and sated industrialized society is torn between extreme modernity and a reactionary return to the past.’ The Modernists, who were heirs to the Age of Enlightenment, wanted to make a clean break with traditional, holistic societies, the sole value of which was conformity to tradition. The break came as a revolution, violent and swift: the Modernists stood for individualism and technology.

Modern man saw himself as homo faber—the doer capable of building a technology-rich world—and, as we now know, also capable of blowing all life to pieces! The fact is that modernity itself is constantly at risk of retreating into its ivory tower, and indulging in the same replication process which it censures in ancient or traditional societies. Replication based on identical copying, imprisonment in cycles, the dogma of religions which, although they protect social bonds, pretend to know all the answers (always the same) to all the questions. The new modern religions—technology and individualism—carry the same threat of replication, enclosure, and suffocation.

The flash point between all these issues—the milieu par excellence of remedy and disobedience—is culture. The overwhelming presence of technology, of virtual reality, and of the hyper-sophisticated tools of our present-day societies, shows us to what extent the world of humans is not a natural world. Even when they live amid nature, humans are always wanting to mark differences, to exploit discrepancies: to show ‘initiative.’ The human world is a world of language, discussion, and creation, and not one occupied by the fabrication of stereotypes. In the heart of culture, in the created work, lies a dual articulation.

Between the individual and the artwork exists a unique, privileged, passionate, and inventive relationship, and between the artwork and society exists a relationship of rupture, due to the opening-up effect that the artwork imposes on its social milieu. The artwork keeps what is open open, affording access to the essence of being itself. And this is why design work for cultural facilities is necessarily focused on unmasking the essence. This remedial process, which Gautrand lays claim to and engages in, entails an unmasking and an opening-up to questions. She likes to quote a definition of culture made by the French poet Saint-John Perse, who spoke of ‘the luxury of being unaccustomed.’ We have to make a constant effort to force our entry into that world where the ‘unaccustomed’ is dominant, a world where everything is called into question and where divergence, disorder, and disobedience constitute the norm.

Gautrand has devised pairs of opposites to address this threat: dependence/disobedience, immobility/boldness, past/present, unique/plural, answers/questions. Her thought is on the side of disobedience, boldness, and plurality as remedies against replication—these things are the founding elements of her architecture and her approach to programs. The lesson contained in these remedies is summed up in a number of her remarks: if ‘innovation is always based on disobedience,’ we should ‘mark the change by our way of representing our civilization,’ ‘work within discrepancies,’ take ‘the risk of building’ and test ‘our emotions and desires to the utmost!’

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Strategies To bring people into this world and—more important still—to open it up to them, Gautrand employs different strategies, which are themselves divergent. In fact, it is their divergence that suits them to the function of unmasking and it is what makes her projects very different

MANUELLE GAUTRAND ARCHITECTURE A MATTER OF PERCEPTION

16

17

MANUELLE GAUTRAND ARCHITECTURE

22

MUNCH MUSEUM

23

MANUELLE GAUTRAND ARCHITECTURE

28

REFURBISHMENT AND EXTENSION OF LILLE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART

29

MANUELLE GAUTRAND ARCHITECTURE

32

REFURBISHMENT AND EXTENSION OF LILLE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART

33

MANUELLE GAUTRAND ARCHITECTURE

42

‘LA GAITÉ LYRIQUE’ CULTURAL CENTER FOR DIGITAL ART

43

MANUELLE GAUTRAND ARCHITECTURE

198

LE MONOLITHE MIXED-USE BUILDING

199

MANUELLE GAUTRAND ARCHITECTURE

238

‘BRÄDSTAPELN’ OFFICE BUILDING

239

Founded in 1991, Manuelle Gautrand Architecture is a Parisian-based firm whose key aim is to ‘re-enchant the city’ by evoking emotion, reinventing spaces, and garnering renewal and innovation.

Each of the projects that this firm produces expresses a specific relationship to the site: a desire to revive it and enchant; a deep commitment to working on programs entrusted to the firm; ensure efficiency, flexibility and surprise. Each project is a unique and symbolic encounter.

Fuelled by shared ideas and prominent for its breadth of practice, this book documents, in full color, the comprehensive collection of Manuelle Gautrand Architecture’s design solutions. It celebrates intuitive and stunning designs and the firm’s commitment to beauty, revival, boldness and precision.

Cover images: (front) © Guillaume Guerin (Alesia Cinema Theater); (back) © Luc Boegly (‘La Comédie de Béthune’ National Drama Center) $65.00 [USA] £45.00 [GB]